[3]Canada's latest and greatest climate change denial group, the Natural Resource Stewardship Project[4], has come up with a laughable reason for hiding it's funding sources. According to a recent CanWest News Service article[5], the NRSP's executive director, Tom Harris, states that “a confidentiality agreement doesn't allow him to say whether energy companies are funding his group.”

Unfortunately for Harris and his secretive little club, such a a statement does not diffuse speculation, it only begs the question more. What organization could be funding Harris's NRSP that necessitates such secrecy? Even the Competitive Enterprise Intstitute, an industry front group with a great deal more profile than the NRSP, readliy admits[6] they lobby-for-dollars on behalf of of industry leaders like Ford Motor Company and ExxonMobil.

I actually e-mailed Harris a few weeks ago when his new group was formed asking who was backing the NRSP. Harris promptly responded that I would receive “a package” shortly. I haven't heard from Harris, but I have definitely become more wary of misshapen letters and unlabelled packages delivered to my office.

So DeSmog fans, who is funding the Not Really Science People?[7] Since Harris won't tell us, we can speculate to our hearts content.

Best guess wins a much-coveted DeSmog t-shirt. To kick things off, I'm betting the NRSP is being funded by the Estonian government[3], who has a vested interest in denying the realities of climate change due to its well-known obsession with Kiwi-fruit.